How Much Should I Be Feeding My Dog?

HarleyHasMyHeart

I know this is probably something I should know by now but I just wanna know I am feeding him right. At my house I have two Golden Retrievers, my dog Harley and my sisters dog Angel. Harley is around 70 pounds and Angel is somewhere is the high 90 pounds (we know she is overweight, we are trying to work on her weight). I dont really measure how much I feed them I just guesstimate how much I think they should eat, I know that is probably bad. Thats why I am asking. How much should I be feeding these two dogs?

Dawnben

you start with the bag recommendations and get a measuring cup it is important. If the dog it over weight lower there recommended amount if underweight or very active raise the amount if just right keep the recommended amount.

HarleyHasMyHeart

Thanks so much!! Thats kind of like a "DUHH" moment for me haha.
It makes sense, again, thank you.

Tess

Yeah, first I would figure out how much you are feeding them... toss the food in the bowel as usual, then take it out and measure it. Once you get that figured out, then reduce what you are feeding by 10 or 20%. You don't want to put them on too much of a reduced ration all at once, but reduce some, and work in more exercise, and your dogs should slim down.

What you want to look at is your dog's body condition. You should be able to easily feel ribs and just feel the hip bones. There should be a nice tummy tuck. You don't want that pad of fat above the tail, or over the shoulders, or along the back. Perhaps next doggy check up you can ask your vet for a target weight for each dog. Obesity is really a huge health problem for dogs, so getting a handle on their weight will give them benefits of a longer, healthier life!

PS. One more thing. You might consider changing their food. Contrary to "popular wisdom" "Light" dog foods are not necessarily better for losing weight. They tend to have a lot more carbohydrates, which is not really a natural food for dogs. As mostly carnivores, protein is their main source of nutrition. Check out this website if you want to learn more about different foods. I truly think a lot of our dogs' weight issues are a result of over feeding of grains.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...iews/index.php

HarleyHasMyHeart

Wow, thanks this is very helpful!!

Harley is no overweight at all he is a healthy weight, but his doggy sister Angel is overweight. I wasn't sure how much to feed her to help her lose weight, I give them about the same amount for each of them. I used to feed Angel the weight loss food but I didnt see any difference feeding it to her so I feed her the same food I feed Harley which is the Pedigree Complete Adult Nutrition. They both have about 40 minutes to an hour of exercise a day. They both go on 20 t0 30 minute walks, two walks a day.

Thank you for the response, this is very helpful.

Tess

That's great you are getting your dogs that much exercise... not all dogs are so lucky! Are they able to do anything free-running like fetching a ball? I've seen those tennis ball throwers and they look pretty neat. Even 10 minutes of really vigorous stuff might help tip the balance. My dogs are not retrievers, and have no interest in chasing a ball, but that seems like a good option for increasing the fitness level a little for dogs who love to fetch.

You might look up the Pedigree on that website. It may have a lot of corn in it, which is increasingly suspected of not being a good food for dogs, and may actually tend to put weight on them. Corn is also known to be an allergen to many dogs, increasing skin and ear problems.

There are some threads around here on foods, if you are interested. Maybe as you are going after the fitness thing... like for humans we would think about what we eat, as well as quantity, as well as activity level.

HarleyHasMyHeart

Harley used to have fetch time in my backyard but we had a tornado in my area last week and a big tree fell on our fence and now there is a tree and a big whole in the fence and Harley will run and never come back if I let him in the backyard with the tree still there. Angel doesn't fetch, she is the first Golden that I have lived with that doesnt like to play fetch.
Once my fence is fixed I will definetly start playing fetch with him again.
I want to take both of them to the local dog park but Harley has some bad habits that I still have to try and figure out what to do about before he can even be near other male dogs.

What you just said about the Pedigree dog food could explain why Harley chews his feet a lot of the time. Maybe I should look into other dog foods, thank you for telling me that, I didnt know!! What are some good dog food brands? There are soo many different brands out there!!